I know it's a matter of subjectivity, but why would you spent $15,000-$16,000 on a guitar whose quality won't be triple that of a $5000 Daemoness or another absolutely top-tier builder?

Surely you're mostly paying for the prestige of a PRS headstock when you get this deep into their Private Stock orders?

I can understand an $8000-$9000 Private Stock, sure, but not $15,000+.

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Yes, it absolutely is a matter of subjectivity, and you're making two huge assumptions here:

1) That the difference between a $9000 and $18,000 private stock is an appreciable one for a company with a customer demographic who regularly buys their special edition private stocks for $20k+. Both myself and my wallet can sympathise with your nickel-and-diming of PRS' prices, but what we can afford is irrelevant to how PRS runs its custom shop.

2) You're assuming that a $5000 Daemoness is 'worth it', but somehow a $9000 or $15,000 PRS private stock is not.

The fact is that guitars--even the nicest ones you can think of--cost a few hundred dollars in materials to make. Then there's labour to be factored in, and maybe additional costs for the time it takes to produce ornamental features like elaborate inlays. But at the end of the day you're going to have to come up with your own reasons as to why a Daemoness is 'worth' $5000 because in an objective sense it is not. We could just as easily be having this conversation in Daemoness' thread, questioning why Dylan's guitars are worth $5000 when X or Y competitor offers a similar product for half the price. Simply put, companies charge what they charge not only because they can get away with it (the capitalist defense, let's say), but because they're producing a product of primarily artistic worth. These are custom instruments we're talking about, after all.

Basically, you're asking for a sensible discussion about price in a conversation that is about a luxury good. We could sit here and talk about why people still buy Ferraris if a great BMW can perform similarly at a quarter of the price. Or, even more abstractly, why one jewellery manufacturer can charge more money for a piece of jewellery that has the same carat weight and quality as another makers'.

I won't even touch the topic of brand names boosting resale value because the custom instruments have shite resale values across the board (except in cases where scarcity is involved--e.g. blackmachine), but at least PRS is an internationally recognised brand. They have dealers. They have an established track record of value. They have integrity to their name. This isn't to shit on the company Dylan is trying to build for himself, but let's face it, when you walk into some boutique guitar shop in Nashville that only stocks 'the good stuff', what are the chances there's some private stocks hanging on the wall in there alongside the $10,000 vintage amps and $30,000 Gibsons and Fenders? I'm not commenting on quality here, or saying that certain brands make 'big boy toys' that deserve a larger hang tag, I'm just saying that obviously the prices of PRS' top-tier instruments are going to fit that environment, and it's an environment that's not shared by all these other niche custom luthiers. This is something I think few people consider when this conversation comes up, but it really ought to be. There's a reason why all of SS.org's favorite luthiers charge similar prices, too: it basically boils down to demographics at the end of the day.

Anyway, is that paying extra for the name on the headstock? Sort of, but not really. I think it's a lot more complicated than that. But even if we reduce it down to something that simple, it's something that happens with the custom luthiers anyway, so I don't really see your point. $18k is a crazy price for a guitar, but $5k is not the 'sensible' price I'd point to by comparison.

Yes, it absolutely is a matter of subjectivity, and you're making two huge assumptions here:

1) That the difference between a $9000 and $18,000 private stock is an appreciable one for a company with a customer demographic who regularly buys their special edition private stocks for $20k+. Both myself and my wallet can sympathise with your nickel-and-diming of PRS' prices, but what we can afford is irrelevant to how PRS runs its custom shop.

2) You're assuming that a $5000 Daemoness is 'worth it', but somehow a $9000 or $15,000 PRS private stock is not.

The fact is that guitars--even the nicest ones you can think of--cost a few hundred dollars in materials to make. Then there's labour to be factored in, and maybe additional costs for the time it takes to produce ornamental features like elaborate inlays. But at the end of the day you're going to have to come up with your own reasons as to why a Daemoness is 'worth' $5000 because in an objective sense it is not. We could just as easily be having this conversation in Daemoness' thread, questioning why Dylan's guitars are worth $5000 when X or Y competitor offers a similar product for half the price. Simply put, companies charge what they charge not only because they can get away with it (the capitalist defense, let's say), but because they're producing a product of primarily artistic worth. These are custom instruments we're talking about, after all.

Basically, you're asking for a sensible discussion about price in a conversation that is about a luxury good. We could sit here and talk about why people still buy Ferraris if a great BMW can perform similarly at a quarter of the price. Or, even more abstractly, why one jewellery manufacturer can charge more money for a piece of jewellery that has the same carat weight and quality as another makers'.

I won't even touch the topic of brand names boosting resale value because the custom instruments have shite resale values across the board (except in cases where scarcity is involved--e.g. blackmachine), but at least PRS is an internationally recognised brand. They have dealers. They have an established track record of value. They have integrity to their name. This isn't to shit on the company Dylan is trying to build for himself, but let's face it, when you walk into some boutique guitar shop in Nashville that only stocks 'the good stuff', what are the chances there's some private stocks hanging on the wall in there alongside the $10,000 vintage amps and $30,000 Gibsons and Fenders? I'm not commenting on quality here, or saying that certain brands make 'big boy toys' that deserve a larger hang tag, I'm just saying that obviously the prices of PRS' top-tier instruments are going to fit that environment, and it's an environment that's not shared by all these other niche custom luthiers. This is something I think few people consider when this conversation comes up, but it really ought to be. There's a reason why all of SS.org's favorite luthiers charge similar prices, too: it basically boils down to demographics at the end of the day.

Anyway, is that paying extra for the name on the headstock? Sort of, but not really. I think it's a lot more complicated than that. But even if we reduce it down to something that simple, it's something that happens with the custom luthiers anyway, so I don't really see your point. $18k is a crazy price for a guitar, but $5k is not the 'sensible' price I'd point to by comparison.

There's also the "....but I really just want a PRS" factor.
Which is why this thread is even past the 1 page mark. There are plenty of multiscale 7s out there. But no PRSmultiscale 7s. Same with the PRS 8 thread. People have brands they just like.

I would rather buy the newer Blackmachines if Im going spend the 20K USD. Also, I heard the Hipshot fanned bridge such as this one is the worst bridges ever try to change strings on and also not comfortable bridge like normal Hipshots. I dont want rest my palm on that screws

I am wondering how much it would take for them to do that same fan but on a neck that isn't as wide (eg 6 string). I would hope they wrote a script to calculate all the angles given a fretboard width and the scale lengths.